Why is Falcon Heavy the most Powerful Rocket of all time and why we should use this Technology in the Future?

February 9, 2018

The rocket carried CEO Elon Musk’s red Tesla Roadster with it into an orbit that goes as far as the asteroid belt. The launch was made from the same pad that was used by Apollo Missions of NASA. It was claimed as the world’s most powerful rocket till date and many companies are interested in doing business with SpaceX following this event.

Although many people are calling it the story of the year, Musk has a lot more to focus on. The major projects include launching of astronauts on its crewed Dragon spacecraft and preparing Big Falcon Rocket. The claim of the company that Falcon Heavy is the most powerful rocket of all times is based on two major reasons.

Firstly, this giant has 27 engines which are a record in itself. The combined thrust generated at the time of lift-off is 5 million pounds. This means that it can send around 140000 pounds of weight in lower orbit of Earth. Any operational rocket cannot send even half of it there. Secondly, no rocket ever has managed to send such a heavy vehicle into space before Falcon Heavy.

A huge sum of about $500 million was spent on this beast over the span of 7 years. The main purpose of all this expenditure was to enter the market for launching huge satellites and spacecraft into space. Musk praised this powerful rocket with the following words:

“Falcon Heavy opens up a new class of payload. It can launch twice as much payload as any other rocket in the world. It can launch things right to Pluto and beyond, no stop needed.”

Falcon Heavy liftoff stages

It was probably the most awaited launch of the last decade. The initial announcement came in 2011 that Falcon Heavy will be developed. The dates given for launching this rocket was set in 2013 or 2014 but the failures of Falcon 9 postponed it for so long. The difficulty faced by the SpaceX team to put everything right is clearly evident from this statement of Musk, “It actually ended up being way harder to do Falcon Heavy than we thought. At first, it sounds easy: just stick two first stages on as strap-on boosters. How hard can it be? But then all the loads change, the aerodynamics change.”

Another point that was impressive for a sizable amount of audience was the cost efficiency that is being claimed by the company for each flight of this rocket. The amount advertised is $90 million a launch. On the other hand, Delta Heavy IV costs between $300 million and $500 million for a flight to orbit carrying 32 tons. Carrying 64 tons at such a price is literally out of this world from Falcon Heavy.

Starman onboard of Tesla Roadster

Talking about the success of the flight, Musk told reporters that this flight is a successful one and you can expect the next launch in 3 to 6 months. However, he did mention that there were two things that didn’t go to plan. The center core of the three-booster first stage missed the drone ship landing and crashed into Atlantic while the final engine burn of the second stage was stronger than expectations which took the payload past Mars(which was the original target).

The tour program of Falcon Heavy seems quite full as it has two more flights to make this year. The first of them will be a communications satellite for a Saudi Arabian company called Arabsat 6A and the second flight is for U.S. Air Force. SpaceX has also scheduled flights for Inmarsat and Viasat.

“We have a number of commercial customers for Falcon Heavy. I really don’t think it’s going to be, in any way, an impediment to acceptance of national security missions,” said Musk

All the features Falcon Heavy possess clearly indicate that it is an amazing invention that will prove to be extremely useful in space expeditions in the years to come. The power to lift such an outstanding capacity of load to Earth’s orbit and far in a price as low as $90 million a flight shows the hard work that Musk and his team has put into the world’s MOST POWERFUL rocket. It can certainly be called an invention for the future.

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